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Houston Methodist Developing Database for Early Detection and Treatment of Pancreatic Diseases
The pancreas, an organ tucked behind the stomach and in front of the spine, plays a vital role in digestion and regulating blood sugar. Due to its location, diseases that affect the organ can sometimes be incidentally found when a patient undergoes imaging for another concern. Diagnosis can occur at advanced stages, especially in the case of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survivability rate of 13% for all combined stages, making early diagnosis critical to a patient’s survival.
One way this can be addressed is through the examination of patient medical records comprised of patients who have been diagnosed with pancreatic diseases. Dr. A. Osama Gaber, with Dr. Ashish Saharia, and his research team have developed a pancreatic database to meet this need. This will allow physicians to compare medical histories or trajectories, enabling them to recognize these diseases at an earlier stage.
Utilizing this database, Dr. Gaber and Dr. Saharia’s research team analyzes pathology reports and probes different characteristics to assess whether these variables had any impact on survival. Dr. Youssef Dib, the clinical research fellow heading this research, provided further insight stating, “We're starting off with pancreas resection and transplants right now. We've been working mainly with the pathologies of all patients who received a pancreatic resection since 2015.
We examine the data of any patient who received neoadjuvant therapy. We then group the data by treatment type: pancreatic resection only vs chemotherapy prior to pancreatic resection (known as neoadjuvant therapy). We analyzed tumor characteristics from pathology reports and overall survival rates. Our study found significant differences in tumor characteristics between the two groups, suggesting that neoadjuvant therapy may be associated with more benign tumor features.”
Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survivability rate of 13% for all combined stages, making early diagnosis critical to a patient’s survival.
“The lymph node data also contains many interesting things. The survivability charts plotted with lymph node data are consistent with existing studies. We want to explore this further, aiming to create an all-encompassing pancreas database that includes all patients, whether they have cancer, pancreatitis, pancreas cysts, or transplantation,” said Dr. Dib.
An established database such as this would allow for the ultimate goal: a pancreas center at Houston Methodist. For now, the team is starting with a cyst clinic and is building from there. Cysts are one of the pancreatic conditions often found when a patient undergoes a CT scan or imaging for something else. When this happens, patients will now be referred to the cyst clinic.
“These cysts can eventually turn malignant, so we want to catch and treat them as early as possible. The whole idea of this clinic is that pancreatic diseases are very complicated. Currently, a patient who comes into the hospital for pancreatic conditions is referred to imaging. They are then referred to a specialist or PCP and the process can take a long time, delaying diagnosis and treatment. At a center like this, where a designated pancreas tumor board is looking at images and patient charts together, patients will hopefully get their treatment in a much shorter time. That’s the end goal,” said Dr. Dib.